Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Essay

Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA), known in the criminal justice field as blood splatter analysis, has been studied since the 1890s. Blood splatter, or bloodstain pattern constructional readings, is a technique that seeks to piece together the incident that caused an individual’s bleeding. Understanding blood splatter on a wall or various surfaces can be instrumental in formulating if a crime was committed and if the blood discovered at the crime scene can be used as evidence. The first documentation of blood splatter research occurred at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Poland, by Dr. Eduard Piotrowski . During Dr. Piotrowski’s research and documentation period, where he used live bunnies to research blood splatter from head

The DNA result regarding the blood found on the floor passenger compartment does not provide any statistical analysis. In other words, you do not have any scientific reason to indicate the blood belongs to the victim. Correct?

Bloodstain pattern analyst may face many challenges when examining crime scenes. One of the challenges they are faced with is interacting

Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) is the interpretation of bloodstains at a crime scene in order to recreate the actions that caused the bloodshed. Analysts examine the size, shape, distribution, and location of the bloodstains to draw about what happened. BPA uses principles of biology (behavior of blood), physics (cohesion, capillary action and velocity) and mathematics (geometry, distance, and angle) to assist investigators in answering questions like: • From where did the blood originate from? • What was the cause of the bloodshed? (weapons used) • From what direction was the victim wounded?

The angle of impact is the acute angle that is formed when a blood drop strikes a target (Mrs.Moore, 2013, slide 12 ) . Blood that drops from a 90o angle will form a circular bloodstain and will have a equal length and width. (J Slemko Forensic Consulting Inc, page). However, blood is dropped from an angle less than 90o will form an elliptical shape and point in the opposite direction from which the blood originally came from (J Slemko Forensic Consulting Inc, page). The more the angle of impact decreases, the more the stain is an ellipse (http://www.clt.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/2301650/fsb05.pdf). Height has an affect on bloodstain patterns too. The higher the blood falls from, the more satelline splatter will be created (http://www.clt.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/2301650/fsb05.pdf). The more satelline splatter will make the overall stain larger, which is why a blood that fell from 50 cm will create a smaller strain than blood fell from

Bloodstain pattern analysis is the interpretation of bloodstains found at a crime scene where a bloodshed incident had occurred. Bloodstain pattern analysis can define events that could or could not have occurred during the incident. This means that it is possible to sequence multiple events associated with this incident. Bloodstains are reproducible phenomena when a similar environment is used, hence the possibility of reconstructing a crime scene.1

If you’ve ever seen an episode of CSI, you’ll understand that the people in the forensic labs are given extremely small samples of the supposed killer in the show. The forensic lab then takes these samples and puts it through multiple machines and

At a crime scene, the one thing that can never be fully covered up is the presence of finger prints. Because of the oils we produce through our skin, our fingers leave prints on any imaginable surface, including on another body. These finger prints are classified in many different ways in order to make the extraction, storage and eventual cross-reference of these fingerprints much easier for future analysis purposes. The

The lights, the camera and the action, are often an exaggeration of what forensic science is capable of, in the crime shows, are not the reality of the forensic biological techniques, that helps aid crime resolution. The world of science keeps evolving rapidly and one of the biggest fields is in the crime resolution. To give an idea of how well science has evolved, in 1970, a Canadian citizen by the name of David Milgaard, was convicted of murder. A long twenty three years later, in 1993, the new forensic biological techniques, proved him to be innocent and since then the science has improved immensely. Focussing mainly on the DNA technology using the polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis, fingerprinting and

Blood and the stain patterns created during these acts of violence are of particular interest to the forensic examiner. Bloodstains are routinely utilized to make critical forensic links between victim(s), suspect(s), physical evidence, and the crime scene. To assess the entire forensic value of a bloodstain, the stain must be located, and the physical characteristics of the individual stains that make up the overall pattern must be visualized in a nondestructive manner. Merely locating bloodstains on a garment is sufficient for DNA testing, but to fully understand the entire value of the stain patterns, there must be an ability to visualize the physical characteristics associated with the stain: stain size, shape, distribution, location, overall physical appearance, as well as the interrelationship between the bloodstain and the substrates on which they are located. A bloodstain pattern analyst will evaluate physical characteristics to determine what type(s) of mechanism(s) could account for a specific pattern. This pattern analysis can then be incorporated with other related forensic findings to reconstruct the events surrounding the blood-shedding

Bloodstain pattern analysis is the examination and interpretation of blood evidence left behind at a crime scene. It is based on the principles of biology (behavior of blood), physics (cohesion and capillary action and velocity) and mathematics (geometry, distance, and angle) according to National Forensic Science Technology Center (NFSTC) guide. The analyst is tasked with classifying the type of bloodstain and assisting in reconstructing the events leading up to the act that caused the bloodshed. This is accomplished by examining the size, shape, distribution and location of the bloodstains. There are several different types of patterns, and spatter from the bloodstains can be found on multiple surfaces in many different forms.

Blood evidence is the most common, most recognized and possibly most important evidence in the world of criminal justice. Throughout the history of violent and fatal crimes, bloodstain evidence has recently begun to emerge as a recognized forensic skill. “Blood is one of the most significant and frequently encountered types of physical evidence associated with forensic investigation of death and violent crime” (Eckert & James, 11). When a violent crime has been committed, blood is commonly left behind at the scene of the crime. This blood evidence allows police investigators to piece together the events of the crime. The texture, size, shape, and distribution of the blood can be used to determine when the crime

When it comes to crime scene investigation, the most visually spectacular aspect is likely blood spatter. From Dexter to CSI, the the method by which blood leaves the body and interacts with the environment has caught the imagination of writers, viewers, and scientists alike. The information we can glean from blood includes position of victim or perpetrator within a scene to information about the blood “donor” him or herself. There are many different methods investigators use to analyze this evidence, but the all have one thing in common: the all involve blood.

Basic bloodstain patterns can give investigators vital information about a crime scene. For a while law enforcement was not a big on using bloodstain patterners to solve crimes, but now they use the method more and more. Bloodstain pattern analysis gives you facts surrounding the crime scene by using the physical nature of the bloodstain. The evaluation of bloodshed is to determine the actions that created the bloodstains at the crime scene. The size, shape, and distribution of bloodstains found at a crime scene can be used to remodel the event that took place. Bloodstain can be tested too for DNA that will tell you if all the blood is come for one person or if someone else in object used to cause bloodshed. Those are just some of the example that reconstruction can be used to study bloodstains. Bloodstain patters fall into three different categories. The dropping bloodstain patterns, impacted bloodstain spatters, and special bloodstain configuration. The dropping blood

Fingerprinting and blood testing are two types of assessments to make a positive identification of a criminal. Since everybody’s fingerprints are diverse, it is easy to compare them through a computerized program that forensic scientists use. In order to prove if the DNA of a victim and a criminal match, there are steps that must be followed carefully and correctly.